Lessoc Fountain - a fairy-creature tale

Ch. 14 An Understanding

Cocot found Hector at the castle basking in the sunlight. He had pulled the canvas sacks full of her shopping off of his back and her things were scattered in the grass. She stooped to gather them up.

"Hector, what am I going to do with you?"

"You looking for a butcher?" asked a gruff voice behind her.

Cocot blinked up into the light where the black outline of a man loomed over her. She stood hastily, stepping on her long dress hem.

It was Daniel. The boy from the farm who wanted her to leave him alone had come from his stand to talk to her.

"Sorry? Am I looking for a..." she said.

"A butcher," he said, nodding towards Hector. "To sell the old animal to."

"A butcher?" But butchers kill animals to eat.

"I saw you go around the market several times. I figured you were looking for a butcher. I know someone who will give you a fair price, though a horse this old won't fetch you much."

"A butcher," she repeated stupidly, "...to sell Hector to?" Understanding was sinking in.

Her alarm must have shown because Daniel uncrossed his arms and held his hands out in a gesture of peace. "Don't you want to sell him? Why else would you bring him here?"

"I actually brought him so he could carry my things," she breathed. "And I hoped one of the farmers could look at his hooves to replace his shoes. I don't want to sell him to a...butcher." She shuddered at the horrible thought.

"Do you want me to look at his hooves?" Daniel took a step forward, head cocked to the side.

She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't come up with a single intelligible word.

"The last place I lived was next to the Bulle stables and I was hired on in summertime to help. I can look at his hooves and tell you if he needs new shoes."

"It's very generous," she said. "But I don't want to bother you. I didn't come today to...to bother you."

"Listen, I..." Daniel searched for his words. "I'm sorry. The day you came to the farm, I was...I would like to start again."

Offers in life didn't get any better than that. A smile bloomed through the tight furrows between her eyes and the sides of her mouth. "You can look at his hooves, if it isn't any...bother." He would think she was slow witted if she kept using that word. "They seem to be in bad shape, but I don't know anything about taking care of horses."

"No? There isn't much to know. Brush them off, feed them hay, give them clean water. These are the worst sores I've ever seen," he said, bending down to inspect Hector's ankles. "He's got some kind of dirt in them—you should wash them and rinse with ammonia. Or maybe bleach. That might help the infection."

"I'll see what I have when I get home," she replied. Ammonia indeed! "And the shoes?"

"I'll look." He took a hold of Hector's lower leg, crouching at his side as she had done herself, but the horse refused to lift its hoof. "Allez, old boy, up."

Hector started walking off and Daniel had to scramble backwards.

"No, Hector!" Cocot ran in front of him and pushed, her shoulder to his chest and the balls of her feet digging in the ground. It was like trying to hold back a glacier. He finally stopped several feet further away.

"Where's his bridle and bit?" Daniel asked.

"I don't have one."

"How do you make him follow you?"